Certain species of animals, such as deer, are routinely hunted to maintain a healthy population. The meat from these animals may then be consumed by the hunter or other persons. However, if these animals live near nuclear power facilities or other sources of man-made radiation, their meat may contain elevated levels of certain radionuclides, such as cesium-137. The consumption of meat containing such elevated levels of radionuclides may lead to various short- and long-term health problems.
In order to prevent hunters or other people from consuming meat with high levels of radioactivity, the radiation dose present within animals hunted near nuclear facilities should be checked before the animal is processed and consumed. However, conventional devices for detecting radiation emitted by animals are unable to detect radiation levels below a certain value. Although a single dose of such low levels of radiation may not cause health effects, several doses of these low levels of radiation received over a period time may lead to health problems. Furthermore, conventional systems for determining an associated radiation dose within the animals do not take into account the geometry of the animals, thereby providing inaccurate results.
Accordingly, an improved detection assembly for detecting and measuring radiation emitted by radionuclides present within animals and an associated system for determining a radiation dose present within the animals would be welcomed in the art.